Grado Headphones Portland OR

To begin at the beginning, these headphones have the signature Grado sound, the clear hear-through-the-veils presence that makes them highly valued by recording engineers, and the gorgeous mid-range that is so soprano-friendly.  When I challenged them with the most difficult to record-and-playback opera stars, they sailed merrily along.  Some folks say Grados are best for Rock and Pop, especially Heavy Metal with all their dazzling presence.  Some detractors say they are "too brash."  Others say Grados are uncomfortable to listen through.  Well, I think this latest model, the GS-1000, will dispatch forever that stereotype of Grado headphones.  Physically, they are lightweight and their circumaural (or around the ear) open-cell-foam ear-cups are as soft and comfy as I can remember.  Musically, these new flagship ‘phones can handle whatever the music demands of them.  They can be delicate with a classical string quartet, able to retrieve the precise moment of attack, the smallest nuance of performance; or they can bowl you over with The Great Wall Of Grado sound from a great blues band, yet still capture the smallest details within the stonework of that wall.  You pays your One Large, and you takes your pick.

The engineering team at Grado Labs has tweaked and experimented incrementally for years on this one.  I think I remember John asking various folks what they thought of a prototype three or four years ago at a N.Y. Home Entertainment Show.   It was cute, with the oversized foam ear-cups, wires adangle, resembling battery powered, electric earmuffs; but it didn't sound much different to me than the RS-1.  Since then, Grado Labs has tweaked and modified its way (in an educated version of trial and error) until it has delivered their most excellent all-purpose headphone yet.  Most excellent!!  We're not talking Asti-Spumanti here: we're talking vintage Moët.  Party hearty, dudes!  More to the point, while I definitely get excited by technological breakthroughs (like fiber-optic interconnect cables) or material breakthroughs (like Palladium ribbon cables) - my wife, Grammy Dudious, accuses me of being an "audio revolutionary" -  I most value incremental improvements on the tried and true ... over time.  Grammy also accuses me of being an "audio conservative."

First, Grado Labs has taken their driver unit, proven over decades, and placed it in a more massive, but still lightweight wooden housing.  Next, they designed a tea-cup shaped open-cell-foam ear-cup to distance the driver from the ear drum.  This creates a larger load on the driver, one that cursorily measures to nearly four times the cubic volume ...